Snowmen and Palm Trees

That pretty well sums up what I've been stitching for the past week. I dug out a UFO, The Trilogy's Secret Snowdrift, that's been sitting untouched since last winter. I'm so close to finishing this one and I'm waiting for supplies for my next start so I decided to get this one moving first. I've only got one more snowman and a penguin to complete and then the border. I was so keen on this little piece when I started. I've never understood exactly what causes me to lose interest or why it only happens with certain pieces but it does happen. Maybe it's boredom, who knows.

The palm trees are found in Nantucket's Summer Sampler and I finished stitching the first palm tree while at my Tuesday night SAL. So far, so good, I haven't lost interest in this one yet!

Besides this I've had one small happy dance. I finished off my Cricket freebie for Halloween. One of the ladies in my group suggested finishing it as a bellpull or banner. Since I'm not much for sewing, I'm going to enlist the help of one of my coworkers for the finishing.

No more Halloween stitching for now. I want to pick out something to stitch for Christmas even if it's just an ornie. I'm anxiously awaiting the new JCS ornament issue. I'm told that it's now available in Ottawa so I'll try and get a copy this weekend. In the meantime I chose another start, LHN Home of a Needleworker. This one will be framed and hung in my entry so that everyone who enters our home will know exactly what I've been up to.

I've been having a great time checking out the new releases from St. Charles Market. Two of the ladies in our stitching group (formerly of the Cross Stitch Cupboard) attended the market and brought their new stash this past Tuesday for us to check out. There was plenty of drooling, oohs and aaahs. It was almost as good as Christmas morning! Speaking of Christmas, it seems that there are a few in the group who will be doing a Christmas of Hawkrun Hollow SAL. That's just too big a project for me at the moment with everything else that's going on around here. I have however ordered the new Shepherd Bush, Holy Night. Of course I couldn't stop there! I just had to have Blackbird Designs Midnight Watch. I also sprung for a couple of Val's Stitchin' Stuff smalls. Both with cats on them of course! This was my treat for all the overtime at work that I've put in lately.

Besides cross stitch, the ladies also brought back some beautiful beads for another fellow stitcher. She has been one busy lady, using these beads and others to create some fabulous fobs. She's taking the scissor fobs with her to the upcoming stitching retreat to sell. Because of our home renovations, I'm not able to attend retreat this year. Cry, cry, sniffle, sniffle, since this is the last stitching retreat that will be occuring. Unless of course someone else wants to take over the job. Up until now these retreats have been hosted by The Cross stitch Cupboard or Knit One, Stitch Too as it was recently known. Now that the store has closed, the owners feel that they would like to devote their energies to other pursuits. Anyways, because I'm not attending retreat, I got to pick out and purchase the fob of my choice at our gathering.

Isn't it pretty? Each fob has a protector attached which nicely fits over the point of the scissors. I'm so pleased with it and can't wait to see the new fobs that Elaine creates with all her lovely new beads.

On the renovation front, my kitchen cupboards have arrived! They are sitting inside my garage and have been sitting there for a week now while we wait for the contractor to start. He was supposed to be available the first week in October but is still finishing off another job. Meanwhile we have started to live out of boxes as will be the case well into December I'm sure. We can prepare meals on the BBQ once things are under way. We are fortunate that our BBQ has a side burner for heating pots. There's also the microwave which is sitting on a cart in the spare room where our kitchen table resides. Something tells me though that we will grow sick of this soon enough especially when we won't have our sink available. I expect I'll grow sick of eating out. For the first time in a long time I may actually look forward to cooking when everything is completed!

This weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. Since I can't prepare the bird this year we have made reservations at a favourite haunt in Ottawa. I just purchased a bus ticket online for my youngest to come home from Toronto. His ride backed out at the last minute and Mom came to the rescue. His brother in Cornwall will be joining us as well. My oldest doesn't get enough time off work to come home plus his car is only good enough for short trips and not the highway driving needed to get to our place. So I'll be paying a visit to their home next month when we celebrate my youngest granddaughter's birthday. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend and to my fellow Canadian bloggers, Happy Thanksgiving! In these times of job insecurity and uncertainty, I consider myself truly blessed. Thanks be to God.